Marta Martinelli

Marta Martinelli is senior policy officer responsible for work on gender, democratization, security governance and development issues in Africa. She joined OSI-Brussels in May 2010.

Prior to joining OSI-Brussels, Martinelli worked in Kinshasa for the European Union mission for Security Sector Reform (EUSEC) in the Democratic Republic of Congo. From 2005 to 2009 she advised the Belgian Directorate General for Development on peace-building policies in the Great Lakes Region. Martinelli has advised UNIFEM, UNDP, the European Commission and the European Parliament on gender, peace support operations and security system reform in Burundi, the DRC and the Central African Republic.

Martinelli’s academic career includes holding a Chair in Peace and Conflict Studies at the Free University of Brussels (ULB), teaching at the Institute of International Sociology in Gorizia (Italy) and at the UNESCO Chair for Peaceful Conflict Resolution and Human Rights in Bujumbura (Burundi). She is currently a visiting lecturer at the ULB. She holds a PhD in conflict resolution and an MA in international politics and security studies from the Department of Peace Studies in Bradford (United Kingdom) as well as a BA in diplomacy and international relations from the University of Trieste (Italy). She is fluent in Italian, English and French.